The present invention relates to a semiconductor structure and a method of fabricating the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a semiconductor structure including at least one pFET having superior, i.e., reduced, gate induced drain leakage (GIDL) and a method of fabricating such a semiconductor structure.
As semiconductor device geometries continue to shrink, reliability problems due to gate induced drain leakage (GIDL) current force operation at voltages which are lower than desired for best device performance.
The GIDL current results from the generation of electron-hole pairs in the surface drain depletion region of a field effect transistor (FET) along the area where the gate conductor overlaps the drain diffusion region, when the device is biased such that the drain potential is more positive (greater than +1V) than the gate potential in an n-type field effect transistor (nFET), and when the gate potential is more positive (greater than +1V) than the drain potential in a p-type field effect transistor (pFET).